The United States plans to withdraw from UNESCO, citing financial reasons, as well as what it said was anti-Israel bias at the U.N.’s educational, cultural and science organization.

UNESCO was notified Thursday morning of the U.S. intention to withdraw at the end of 2018. The State Department said the United States would like to remain involved as a nonmember observer state.

The withdrawal means the U.S. will halt the arrears it has run-up since it stopped funding the organization in 2011 to protest the admission of the Palestinian Authority as a full member. By the end of this calendar year, the unpaid U.S. bill will amount to $550 million. With no sign that U.S. concerns would be addressed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided to pull out.

State Department officials said they hope the withdrawal will help push UNESCO to make changes that would satisfy Washington so the U.S. can resume full membership. Though it will not be able to participate in voting, as an observer the U.S. will remain part of discussions on culture, education, science and communication.

“It sends a strong message that we need to see fundamental reform in the organization, and it raises everyone’s awareness about continued anti-Israel bias,” said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity under department ground rules.

The United States helped found UNESCO but has been at odds with the organization in recent years. State Department officials cited a 2012 decision not to expel Syria from its human rights committee after the civil war in that country began, and repeated resolutions that refer to Israel as an occupying power.

“The organization’s absurd and shameful resolutions against Israel have consequences,” said Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon. “Today is a new day at the U.N. where there is price to pay for discrimination against Israel.”

The withdrawal, which will take effect at the end of 2018, marks yet another decision by the Trump administration to distance itself from some parts of the international community.

France’s U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, had urged the United States to remain in UNESCO this week, saying the United States “must stay committed to world affairs.”

Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, expressed “profound regret” after the State Department announced its decision on Thursday.

“At the time when the fight against violent extremism calls for renewed investment in education, in dialogue among cultures to prevent hatred, it is deeply regrettable that the United States should withdraw from the United Nations leading these issues,” she said in a statement.

“This is a loss to UNESCO,” she added. “This is a loss to the United Nation family. This is a loss for multilateralism.”

The withdrawal decision comes as UNESCO members are voting on a replacement for Bokova. Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari is leading France’s Audrey Azoulay and Egyptian hopeful Moushira Khattab. Israeli officials and American Jewish groups have expressed concerns about Kawari for what they have said is a record of fostering anti-Semitism.

UNESCO was established after World War II to help promote global cooperation around the flow of ideas, culture and information. UNESCO’s mission includes programs to improve access to education, preserve cultural heritage, improve gender equality and promote scientific advances and freedom of expression.

It is perhaps best known for the World Heritage program, which helps maintain major cultural sites around the globe.

But the United States has at times had an ambivalent relationship with the Paris-based organization. The United States withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 under the Reagan Administration, critical of what it believed was a pro-Soviet Union bias.

It eventually rejoined in 2002 as part of an effort by the George W. Bush administration to emphasize a message of international cooperation. “America will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights, tolerance and learning,” Bush said at the time.

Tensions have returned in recent years. Israel recalled its ambassador to the organization last year after some governments in the organization supported a resolution which denounced Israel’s policies on religious sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This summer, UNESCO members voted to recognize the old city of Hebron in the West Bank as a Palestinian World Heritage site, despite pressure from Israel and the United States.

Bokova, the director-general, said the partnership between the United States and UNESCO “has never been so meaningful,” despite the withholding of U.S. funding.

“Together, we have worked to protect humanity’s shared cultural heritage in the face of terrorist attacks and to prevent violent extremism through education and media literacy,” she said.

She added: “The American poet, diplomat and Librarian of Congress, Archibald MacLeish penned the lines that open UNESCO’s 1945 Constitution: ‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ This vision has never been more relevant.”

Quote:

France’s U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, had urged the United States to remain in UNESCO this week, saying the United States “must stay committed to world affairs.”

No, we don't have to remain in UNESCO.

The US clearly indicated in 2011 when it stopped paying its UNESCO dues that it had a problem with the way that UNESCO was run.UNESCO had 6 years to address US concerns and it apparently failed to do so.Pulling out of UNESCO (with those dues unpaid ) at this point was the next logical step.

_________________The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.- misattributed to Alexis De Tocqueville

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TEL AVIV – The United Nation’s global tourism body has appointed as its special ambassador a Jordanian businessman accused of anti-Semitism and peddling “solutions” to the Israeli-Arab conflict such as the ethnic cleansing of Jews.

The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) this week tapped wealthy businessman Talal Abu Ghazaleh as Special Ambassador of Tourism and Sustainable Development Goals ahead of its summit in Russia in 2019.

A Palestinian who was born in Jaffa in 1938, Abu Ghazaleh founded the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization, a leading accounting and consultancy firm in the Arab world.

Earlier this year, Abu Ghazaleh told BBC‘s Arabic TV of his “international plan to transfer” the Jewish population of Israel to other countries.

“Just like the Jews believe in the Right of Return, we Palestinians believe in the Right of Return,” Abu Ghazaleh said in remarks translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “Let every Palestinian return to Palestine and every Jew return to his own country.”

“I’m prepared to secure jobs for them all,” he said, before adding the oft-repeated Arab conspiracy theory that all Israelis carry a second passport. “They won’t need to worry about passports or visas, because they all have dual citizenships – Israeli citizenship and citizenship of his country of origin,” he declared.

On another occasion, Abu Ghazaleh repeated the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory prevalent in the Arab world that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were the result of a “Zionist plot.”

“In this day and age, Zionist power controls the decision-making centers. I always say that just like us Arabs, the U.S. is a victim of Zionist influence, which often – if not always – steers U.S. decisions against American interests, and in keeping with Zionist interests at all times,” Abu Ghazaleh explained.

“Hence, global Zionism created the notion of an enemy called ‘the terrorist Islam.’ … Therefore, to put it in an historical context, Zionism, which has been plotting all this time, came across an historic opportunity, and convinced the U.S. administration that this was an opportunity for it as well.”

“This is how it all began. This is how the war began,” he added.

Abu Ghazaleh has in the past been given several high level UN Task Force roles from UN secretary-generals including Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon. In 2016, Abu Ghazaleh was honored for furthering the UNDP’s development goals and for his “commitment to bettering society.” Sitting UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres recently pledged to “do everything possible to fight anti-Semitism in all its expressions.”

“I understand the security concerns of Israel, and I repeat that the idea or the intention or the will to destroy the State of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective,” Guterres said.

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